Airport Shutdown, Stranded in Thailand

What would you do?

A few years ago, some friends of mine planned a wonderful honeymoon in Thailand. Both seasoned travelers, they took a long time vetting hotels, creating a solid itinerary that they thought would give them the culture and respite they deserved.

However, the unexpected happened. When they boarded the plane, my friends weren’t fully aware of the political unrest that had been bubbling for months. Only days after arriving in Bangkok and starting their vacation, militant forces overtook the airport in a non-violent coup, and all flights were canceled (stranding thousands of travelers in the process).

When they realized what had happened, the initial joy they felt at the start of the vacation turned to shock and panic. They were stuck. Only a few days into the trip, they had to scramble to find a way home. This resulted in a harried series of desperate phone calls, negotiations, and other logistical nightmares that cast a dark pall what should have been the time of their lives. In the end, they strung together a series of dangerous, hasty rides in sketchy vans and buses to Kuala Lumpur, and then home just in time to return, dirty and jetlagged, back to work.

Happy honeymoon, indeed.

Although they were experienced travelers, my friends had virtually no pull or clout when it came to this kind of situation. The average traveler is at the mercy of the system, and even though they made it home, it kicked a major dent into what should have been a romantic vacation.

This is one of the benefits of working with a well-connected travel advisor. If a similar situation were to happen to one of my clients, I have literally billions of dollars in leverage and buying power through the Virtuoso Network — the travel industry’s leading luxury network. Through a few simple phone calls, I could have take care of everything behind the scenes.

For example, while my clients go on relaxing, exploring, dining and seeing the sights, I could arrange for private transportation to pick them up at the end of their trip, then transport them through reasonable safe and reliable routes using highly-vetted drivers. All the while, they didn’t have to sacrifice valuable vacation time to figure out how they are going to get home during a national state of emergency.

During any kind of travel, the unexpected is inevitable and this was an extreme example. But why not have the leverage and buying power you can only get through a consortium like Virtuoso so that you can focus on vacationing while I focus on making sure it stays a “vacation”.